Lifestyles: A Life in Photos

A Life in Photography

Jerry Poppenhouse Has Seen it All Through His Lens by Lori Roll

It all started with a Roy Rogers box camera and a racoon. “I set the camera up with a flash blub and a string attached to some food, so when the raccoon pulled on the string, he took his own photo,” said Jerry Poppenhouse. From that moment, he was hooked on photography.

Poppenhouse grew up in the 1940s and 1950s in Owensville, Missouri, a small town with only one stop light, where people were on a first name basis. There were no televisions or computers, and the telephone was a party line which let anyone who picked up the phone be involved in the conversation.

From that humble beginning, Poppenhouse enlisted in the Navy for four years and afterward received a basketball college scholarship in Missouri, which led to an art scholarship at the Kansas City Art Institute. After graduating with his BFA, Poppenhouse was hired in 1967 by Phillips Petroleum Company as a graphic designer and photographer at their Bartlesville headquarters, where he spent his career. The small-town boy quickly found himself traveling the globe, working on annual reports, environmental brochures, safety booklets, short films, slide presentations, and assignments he likened to National Geographic. His work often took him to remote parts of the world he had only heard about in high school history class. “Our subject matter was very

diversified; everything from offshore oil rigs, gas stations, refineries, plastics, fertilizer, clothing, fashion, food, sports, arts, wildlife, underwater, aerials, landscape, portraits, and architecture,” he said.

While many experiences were exciting and memorable, one close call sticks in his mind — when a series of explosions rocked the Houston Chemical Complex Oct. 23, 1989. Poppenhouse had arrived at the Complex that morning, but was asked to return the following day since they had forgotten his appointment. He drove to another assignment in nearby Sweeny, where he heard about the explosion which would have killed him along with the 23 people who died that day. He rushed back to the complex with firefighters and an FBI investigator to document the event. “Even to this day I have trouble talking about it. I have covered three such disasters during my career, but this one was the worst,” he said.

Photography assignments provided Poppenhouse with adventures in the rain forests of West Africa, the tropical jungles of South America, the edge of the

Arctic Ocean, 1500 feet below the surface of the earth in a uranium mine, remote jungles of Central Africa, a presidential palace, the islands of Papua, New Guinea, and his favorite destination, China. “My trips to China back in the early 80s were my favorite. The combination of the culture and scenery, mixed in with the wonderful people, made it a very memorable place in my heart.”

Cultural differences made for interesting perspectives. On a trip to a Stone Age mud hut village on the Ivory Coast, most of the children were malnourished boys. A villager explained, “We need to kill most of the little girl babies because our village can only support so many.” Female children were customarily the last to eat and there was often not enough food to feed even the boys. In another village, Poppenhouse was offered warm beer in a dirty broken glass and maggots to eat. “That’s where I drew the line,” he said.

During a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, a violent storm required an emergency landing at a neighboring country’s military base. “This old airplane was bouncing around with lightning flashing outside. Water was actually coming in under the door.” Soldiers armed with AK47 rifles prevented the frightened passengers from leaving the plane. They refueled and continued through the same storm to Lagos.

Alaska in March was “like being on another planet.” He likened the cold to “sticking your finger into boiling water.” At 65 degrees below zero, he had frozen cameras, frozen film, and frozen eyelashes that caused an eye to freeze shut. Poppenhouse has photographed the rich and famous, including Walt Disney, Robert Redford, Loretta Swit, George Forman, Debbie Reynolds, opera greats Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills, legendary racers A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, and Bobby Alison, baseball players Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Lou Brock, Johnnie Bench, and numerous other sports stars. An award-winning photographer known for his attention to his subjects, detailed preparation, technical excellence, and fresh perspectives, Poppenhouse is adept at negotiating to get his desired photograph. His photography has been published in over a dozen publications, several books, and exhibited in numerous museums, gal“True photography takes time and a camera instead of a machine gun approach, which is what we have today with cell phones. The objective of learning to see is to help free our mind of the noise and clutter we endure every day.” — Jerry Poppenhouse

leries, and private collections. His newest book, titled “Nahasdzaan Shima,” a Navajo word meaning Mother Earth, is filled with photographs of nature from his travels. “We still live on the planet with places like this. Life is too short not to stop and give ourselves time alone with nature. We need to get up and get out. Make every moment count. Each memory is a page in the chapter of your life.”

An ardent educator, Poppenhouse has taught photojournalism through the Oklahoma State University Extension Program and lectured at several other colleges and universities. “I hope to get one or two young people to consider doing photography for a living. True photography takes time and a camera instead of a machine gun approach, which is what we have today with cell phones. The objective of learning to see is to help free our mind of the noise and clutter we endure every day.”

Poppenhouse will display his life in photographs at the Bartlesville Community Center’s Lyon Gallery for two months, beginning with a public reception on April 3rd, 4:30-6:30 p.m. The show includes canvas prints and five electronic viewing stations placed around the gallery. After the show, he will donate all prints to Eldercare. “I’ve had a good life. All those memories. It’s what life is all about.”